Castle Paradox

[Machu]

The year is 2150. It has been 50 years since magic's dawn, yet civilization has still managed to remain intact. The potential for any person to become a recognizable force unleashed all of those striving for independence, while giving the same power to authority. The existing weaponry and tactics of 2100 were no match for magic, and by the time magic has become the core of military power, it could have been too late. The sudden advantage to the public permanently changed the world; many minor (and some large) countries were completely dominated, while new countries were formed from revolution. After half a century, the world has appeared to be under control, even though society has become more diverse than ever; religious skeptics who believe magic to be witchcraft, other's who take it as a miraculous power and consider themselves apostles, anarchists who live among no country and survive on their magic, and similar super-heroes looking to unite the world.

However, despite the end of numerous changes, many villainous persons have secretly worked on their own devious plans, waiting for the right moment to get their way. If a significant catastrophe occurs elsewhere in the world, they might be inspired to bring about their own. As if by coincidence, this world-shaking event is about to occur...


That's the history behind my grand project, "Language of the Mind". As you see, it takes place on Earth after humanity suddenly and mysteriously gained magical powers. The origin of magic will be a later plot surprise, and magic is controled energy created by the soul (despite opinions that will be around in 2150). This isn't necessarily the ability to shoot fire out of nowhere; magic can be manifested into many supernatural abilities.

The game will be a "strategy-RPG" similar to things like Final Fantasy Tactics, though the systems will differ greatly (I may post ideas in the Game Design forum). I'm trying my best to create a believable "real world fantasy" while being as unconventional (or un-cliched) as possible. One of the greatest focuses of the game will be an epic, interactive story, so that the player's actions and decisions will make severe effects on the plot (thus being as non-linear as possible). It will be impossible to get a "game over"; if a mission is failed, then it's failed, of course. The first time through the game will be in "real mode", in which the game autosaves as much as possible to prevent the player from reseting if they're failing/failed. I'm also hoping to involve powerful moral lessons into the game, in hopes that this will be my game that "saves the world"!

Between missions, I imagine the game using sort of an "Advance Wars" type of interface, in which on each day a team of heroes is open, you decide which mission should be attempted next, and after all assignments, all available events to watch/play will highlight and the player decides which ones to do first. After going through every event, the next day starts.

That's enough of an intro. I've been coming up with ideas for this game ever since I decided to make video games for a living (a dang long time, thus why I consider this my grand project). I'm most likely will be able to answer any questions you have, and you might be able to make suggestions, too.
_________________

[Iblis]

The story sounds like it could be pretty cool. You mention it being pretty non-linear, which I think sounds like a good idea for this game. You say it'll have stuff similar to FFT. Will there be multiple jobs/classes and skills to learn and stuff or were you simply referring to the battle system?

[Machu]

Now that I think about it, the battle system will be more like a cross between Shining Force and Fallout. The battle system is in a hexagon grid and involves spending action points to move and attack. The heroes are specialists in their class, and I imagine many teams consisting of a few heroes and some minor characters with basic magic (or sometimes none). This game will not have experience, money, or random encounters, so player's are not encouraged to kill or beat up as many things as possible (there will be monsters, but in this game they are animals created by magic, so they'll almost always be under a villain's direct control). With progress through the game, the heroes will gain abilities and stats, though I'm not sure how customizable it will be. I'm thinking there would be 8-10 aspects of each hero that can be leveled up after each mission (Pretty much all levels in this game are on a scale of 1-5). For example, weapon upgrades will increase damage, fitness will increase HP and AP, and most of the others will be class specific (like more fire spells or increased item capacity). Perhaps I should create the Game Design thread soon? Well, we can just continue discussion, and I won't consider either plot or gameplay offtopic, though if we end up talking about gameplay more, I can have this moved.
_________________

[LeRoy_Leo]

The story sounds sort of familiar. The theme of Magic vs. technology (not that different, except that one you rely on something else to do your work, and the other you rely on your own ability). A great base for an epic though. It should be fun to play through, being able to participate as much as possible in the outcome.
What you gave us is a basic outline of the story though. Sorry my friend, but there won't be much else to tell you about IT (the story). People will probobly complement it, but that's all until you get the time to tell us a more developed version of it. No pressure, eh?
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

[Machu]

It's not so much a "magic vs. techonology" theme (since that's been done before) as "magic in the real world" theme. Telling about specific parts of the storyline would mean going in depth into the characters. Howzabout I come up with the first scenario?

Okay, a flying fortress has recently been launched over the Atlantic ocean by Spain (now Portugul/Spain/parts of France and Italy). A gang of cyber-hackers from an American deviant "Neo America" (working name, between New York and Quebec) have boarded the fortress on a secret mission. Neoites stand strongly for "freedom", thus why they plan to destroy what they believe to be a siege weapon. If the party is defeated, their demolition person will be forced to set off their bomb right away ("Hehe, you guys were screwed the instant I got onboard!"). The mission is also "failed" if after setting up the bomb, they don't escape in time. If the mission is failed, they go down with the fortress, and because of the secretive purpose of the mission, Spain will consider this a terrorist act and declare war on America, in which the next few missions will be defending the East coast from a Spanish invasion. If your party survives the mission, they set up a broadcast to all of Spain in which they speak about freedom, after which starts a revolution in Spain with the assistance of this party which could even lead to the founding of Neo Spain.

Because of the games diversity, I'll have to study many world cultures as to accurately predict what they'd do, as well as create believable stories about new countries. Of course, the whole world doesn't speak English ("Language" is in the title, after all), so if there's voice acting, I'll have to learn some things about major languages and get help from bilingual people.
_________________

[Ssalamanderr]

I love the idea of ever single person being able to use magic. The chaos it would cause is a great thing to base a game on. If this works out like you're planning this will be an excellent game.
_________________
Ssalamanderr's Journal!: http://www.livejournal.com/users/ssalamanderr/

Ukelele no good!

[Liquidmentality]

If it's anything like Fallout YOU CAN'T FAIL!

[Machu]

Hmm... I still want them to be called Neoites, since that sounds so awesome . Now I'm thinking along the lines of "New Republic of America", and it'd actually be a Republic (public meetings and such). By sheer coincidence, the initials turn out to be NRA, but I don't really care.

Since the game's plot revolves heavily around character decisions (actual role-playing?), I need really cool and/or deep characters, so I think it's high time I introduce some. I believe the most important character will be Pis (say "Peez"). I'll try not to make it automatically apparant that he's the main character, since stuff will be happening all over the world, and it's a cliche to make the whole plot revolve around one person. Pis the serpent-bearer is probably the most idealistic character on a quest to save humanity from itself. He's the only character to have a "white" affinity, and during combat, he's the only character who can flat out heal characters, and he is also unable to hurt other people. He can create a beam sword to battle against monsters, robots, and other such non-sentient beings. He's "the serpent-bearer" because he wears a live, white snake around his neck where ever he goes. Pis refers to it as his "guardian" and makes it sound like he's part of an obscure religion in which members all have an animal guardian. The serpent is a sentient creature, and Pis has a link to it in which he can sense whatever it senses and also shares it's thoughts. This link is the "Language of the Mind" that's in the title. Despite all of his philosophies, his personal backround is kept obscure and will end up being a huge suprise to everyone (I've already thought it up, but who Pis really is is one of this game's greatest spoilers).

For a (rough) idea of what he'll look like, I've scribbled up some concept art.
http://machu.0catch.com/pis.html
_________________